


A snowflake fell (and it felt like a kiss)

by leigh57



Category: 24
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-07
Updated: 2013-07-07
Packaged: 2017-12-18 00:45:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/873780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leigh57/pseuds/leigh57
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a Christmas snapshot of the Bauer family in Tahoe, with a tiny touch of sexytimes thrown in for good measure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A snowflake fell (and it felt like a kiss)

**Author's Note:**

> This is an ever-so-slightly (and seriously, I mean so so slightly) polished version of some email fic I wrote for adrenalin211. It's part of a whole elaborate au we have, in which Jack and Renee have a daughter, the result of a birth control snafu. It's hopelessly cheesy family!fic AND fic set at Christmas because I need to think all the snowy winter thoughts, so if that is not your tea, most definitely do not read on.
> 
> The title is from the song by Glasvegas. All the thanks to adrenalin211 for the title suggestion and beta:)

“Hey Dad, you want some more coffee?”

Jack looked up from his book to see Kim standing behind the long counter that separated the living room and the kitchen, carafe clutched in her hand.

“I’d love some.” He stuffed the dolphin bookmark Meredith had made him in between the worn pages. “But I can come get it.”

“No, no. Stay there, please,” Kim mumbled through a mouthful of toast. “I’m up anyway and you look so comfy.” She crossed the living room, navigating around a halfway-completed Lego creation of some sort and over the huge stuffed bear Travis currently dragged almost everywhere he went. “Where’s Mer?” Kim asked. “Stephen and I are gonna drive the kids into town to see that horrifying movie about the elf who has to stop Santa from resigning because he’s pissed at all the mean kids. Or something.”

Jack watched the steam float up from the oversized red ceramic mug with a skating snowman on it. “I thought she went up to get dressed.” He glanced at his watch and reluctantly set the warm mug on the coffee table. “But that was at least ten minutes ago. I should go make sure Renee doesn’t need backup.” He walked toward the stairs, talking over his shoulder. “You’re really sure you want to do the movie? The kids are so tired. We can always turn on Netflix.”

Kim grabbed a foam football off the floor and grinned. “You guys had them all day yesterday while Stephen and I wandered around town, drank gourmet coffee, and ate twice our weight in spinach pizza. It’s your turn to spend five minutes without someone saying, ‘Dad. Dad. Dad. Grandpa. Grandpa. Dad.’”

He chuffed. “Okay, but you can always change-”

His sentence was derailed by the sound of pounding footsteps and Renee’s voice, loud and echoy in the cathedral-ceilinged living room. “Meredith Evelyn. If those pajamas aren’t in the laundry basket by the time I get to three, you’re staying right here while Teri and Travis go to see the movie you’ve been looking forward to for a month.” In the pause, Meredith appeared around the corner of the stairs and stopped at the landing, jaw set, her Wonder Woman pajamas jammed under her arm.

“One.” Jack locked his own jaw so he wouldn’t smile. He could see the battle raging behind Meredith’s eyes -- the horrible (and time-sensitive) choice between losing face in front of half the family by doing what her mother told her to do and missing the opportunity for a big-screen viewing of a movie she’d seen advertised for weeks.

“Two.” Meredith glared at him, green eyes lit with irritation that he’d never take her side on this one.

And all of the sudden, just as he’d predicted (he’d seen this movie before, too many times to count), she exhaled loudly, spun around, and dashed back upstairs, yelling, “Don’t say ‘three,’ Mom! I’m putting them away.”

He shook his head and picked up his coffee, savoring the smell as he swallowed. Kim stuck a few remaining breakfast dishes into the dishwasher and smirked at him, eyes darting around to make sure that there were no kids within earshot. “It’s a good thing Renee’s such a hardass. Can you imagine what a nightmare my baby sister would be with only _you_ for a parent?”

“I’d rather not think about it,” he muttered, walking over to the giant bay window to watch the snow.

Kim was right.

He still experienced routine moments of amazement, observing the way Renee interacted with their daughter. She’d been so scared at first, so _not_ natural at any of it, so afraid of screwing up. He could see (still vivid in his mind) her exhausted face shiny with tears, hear the terrified uncertainty in her shaky voice. _I think I’m really terrible at this, Jack. She won’t eat. Nothing I do makes her stop crying._

Now, he could already hear the laughter coming from the hallway bathroom upstairs, Meredith’s bouncy voice asking, “Do you think we should use the green ones or the purple ones?” and the warmth of Renee’s reply. “Can we use the green? It makes those eyes I love look even greener.”

Kim was _so_ right.

The fact that Meredith existed made it almost impossible for him to discipline her. He could. He did, when he had to. But he always hated it so fiercely that fights with her felt like physical pain. The fact that she looked (and acted, god help him) like a small, lighter-haired version of Renee didn’t help anything.

Both she and her mother were gorgeous walking reminders of everything he’d lost without appreciating it enough, everything he’d come so close to losing again when he’d barely gotten it back.

He was pretty much incapable of saying ‘no’ to either of them, but this truth bothered him a lot less than it probably should have. He took another sip of coffee and suppressed a grin. Beyond the bay window, the snow that had been coming down on and off ever since they got here seemed a lot more determined this morning, and he allowed himself a quick mental pat on the back for choosing the car rental upgrade and going with the Forester, the one with _all_ the bells and whistles.

Renee had said she liked the ass-warmer and . . . on that note it was time for a mental subject change. He surveyed the kitchen counter and thought about what he’d make for dinner tonight. Maybe he’d thrill the kids with “top your own” personal pizzas. He could picture Teri stacking on the pepperoni, neat overlapping circles, while Meredith made smiley faces with the olive slices and Travis dumped handfuls of cheese into the middle of his until somebody grabbed his pudgy wrist and helped him redistribute.

“Daddy, d’you know where my hat is? The green one?”

He looked down to see Meredith standing beside him, her strawberry-blond hair perfectly brushed and secured on each side with green barrettes. “I’m trying to find green stuff because Mom likes green and I was being a pain.”

“You’re tired, pumpkin.” He heard Renee’s footsteps on the stairs. “But you should do what Mom asks you.” Clearing his throat, he said, “And I think your hat’s on the hook by the door.”

“Thanks!” She squeezed his leg for half a second before running to the foot of the stairs and yelling, “Teri, hurry _up_. We get to go see the elf movie!”

________________

After the cacophony of zipping parkas, dropped boots, and excited chattering voices, the living room was almost eerily quiet once Jack heard the Subaru pull out of the attached garage, followed by the drone of the automatic door coming down.

He looked over at Renee, who was leaning against the kitchen counter with an unreadable flicker of . . . something in her eyes.

He walked towards her, slowly, letting himself feel (for probably the twentieth time since she’d burst into tears the morning he and Meredith had surprised her with the Tahoe trip) what a privilege it was to have time to slow down, take her in, _appreciate_ her in a way that her fucking job was making it harder and harder to do. Her hair was wavy and still a touch damp from the shower. If she was wearing makeup, he couldn’t see any -- maybe just that tinted lip gloss stuff that tasted like peppermints. In a scoop-necked black ribbed long-sleeved t-shirt and a pair of jeans that hugged her thighs and her ass, well. She pretty much made him want to strip her right there and take her on the nearest available surface.

Floor, couch, whatever.

So when, before he could even decide what he wanted to say, she announced, “I think we should do it on the couch,” he choked on his coffee and almost spilled it on the floor, trying to keep the mug straight while he coughed. He stuck the cup on the table.

“You.” He coughed again. “What?”

She gave him a flirty grin. “Jack. They’ll be gone for _hours_. And honestly? All the sleep I’m getting up here is just making me horny.” She walked toward him, slow, stopping when she was close enough to put her hands on his chest, rub them up over his shoulders and down his arms until her fingertips were touching his. Then she leaned in, and he caught a hit of her vanilla body spray as she whispered, “I thought maybe you’d wanna help me out with that. But if you need to get caught up on your reading-”

He cut her off with his mouth, taking her face in his hands and holding it while he kissed her and breathed her in, the peppermint he’d predicted, the rich taste of coffee when her tongue touched his. She pulled him closer, pressing all up against him the way she did when she knew they didn’t have to stop, when there was no reason to put on the brakes.

It had been _way_ too long since she’d touched him like this, since he’d felt her body fully dressed but already humming with anticipation, shaping itself to his.

“The couch? Really?” he asked, trying to breathe even though he really just wanted to put his tongue back on her lips.

“Well, we can go upstairs if you insist, but-”

“Couch is good.” He grabbed her by the hips and gently navigated in that general direction, kissing his way down the side of her neck at the same time. She was already panting, sharp breaths against his hair, and he’d have been lying if he didn’t acknowledge what a turn-on it was to be able to get her going like this with literally thirty seconds of foreplay. When the back of her knees bumped the couch, she laughed, and ran her hand up the inside of his thigh, over the zipper of his jeans and back down again before she reached for the metal.

“This is gonna have to be a quickie,” she said, and he felt his throat go dry as her hands slipped underneath the waistband of his boxer briefs. “But I promise I’ll make it up to you later.”

________________

“We don’t do this enough.” Jack smoothed his palm up Renee’s naked back, unable to suppress the grin that formed when he discovered she was still a little sweaty.

“Have sex?” Renee snickered into his chest. “I agree totally.”

“Yeah, that too,” he admitted. “But I meant-” He paused, trying to put into words the sensation that surrounded him, lying here with her relaxed halfway on top of him, Christmas music from Songza low in the background, his body satisfied almost to the point of exhaustion by the quickie followed by the . . . not-at-all-quickie.

God, he just felt so fucking _good_.

“It’s nice to have you naked, and be able to rub your back for a minute without forgetting everything except how much I wanna get inside you.”

“You don’t wanna do that?” She raised her head a little, an expression of mock outrage on her flushed face.

“Well, I mean-”

“Jack, stop. I’m kidding.” Her voice went quieter. “I know exactly what you mean.” She rubbed her hand over his ribs, fingers squeezing softly; her thumb lightly traced one of his scars. (It was completely fucked up, but something about her hands on them was so erotic.) “Things have been so crazy at work, and there’s never time, and that’s why-” She stopped, and he could almost _hear_ her thinking.

He pulled her a little closer, until he could feel her breath on his throat. “That’s why what?”

She shook her head, scent of raspberry shampoo. “Nothing. I’ll tell you later. Right now I just want to lay here until we’ve heard at least seven different versions of ‘Silent Night.’”

He stroked the back of his finger down her arm. “I was gonna make you this whole fancy lunch. I had it all planned out. I even bought all the ingredients for those grilled chicken paninis with artichoke spread. You love those!”

“I love _this_.” Jack felt her bare thigh slip over his. “I love _you_.” She kissed his chest. “Kim said she’d text when they were driving out of town, and I’m not moving until I hear my phone.”

He laced his fingers with hers and closed his eyes. Songza switched to a jazz version of _The Christmas Song_ , saxophone low and smooth. “I can live with that,” he said, and his body went even warmer when he felt her smile on his skin.


End file.
